herodotus

197. When Xerxes had reached Alos of Achaia, the guides who gave himinformation of the way, wishing to inform him fully of everything,reported to him a legend of the place, the things, namely, which haveto do with the temple of Zeus Laphystios;[201] how Athamas the son ofAiolos contrived death for Phrixos, having taken counsel with Ino, andafter this how by command of an oracle the Achaians propose to hisdescendants the following tasks to be performed:--whosoever is theeldest of this race, on him they lay an injunction that he isforbidden to enter the City Hall,[202] and they themselves keep watch;now the City Hall is called by the Achaians the "Hall of thePeople";[203] and if he enter it, it may not be that he shall comeforth until he is about to be sacrificed. They related moreover inaddition to this, that many of these who were about to be sacrificedhad before now run away and departed to another land, because theywere afraid; and if afterwards in course of time they returned totheir own land and were caught, they were placed[204] in the CityHall: and they told how the man is sacrificed all thickly covered withwreaths, and with what form of procession he is brought forth to thesacrifice. This is done to the descendants of Kytissoros the son ofPhrixos, because, when the Achaians were making of Athamas the son ofAiolos a victim to purge the sins of the land according to the commandof an oracle, and were just about to sacrifice him, this Kytissoroscoming from Aia of the Colchians rescued him; and having done so hebrought the wrath of the gods upon his own descendants. Having heardthese things, Xerxes, when he came to the sacred grove, both abstainedfrom entering it himself, and gave the command to his whole army to solikewise; and he paid reverence both to the house and to the sacredenclosure of the descendants of Athamas.198. These then are the things which happened in Thessalia and inAchaia; and from these regions he proceeded to the Malian land, goingalong by a gulf of the sea, in which there is an ebb and flow of thetide every day. Round about this gulf there is a level space, which inparts is broad but in other parts very narrow; and mountains lofty andinaccessible surrounding this place enclose the whole land of Malisand are called the rocks of Trachis. The first city upon this gulf asone goes from Achaia is Antikyra, by which the river Spercheiosflowing from the land of the Enianians[205] runs out into the sea. Ata distance of twenty furlongs[206] or thereabouts from this riverthere is another, of which the name is Dyras; this is said to haveappeared that it might bring assistance to Heracles when he wasburning: then again at a distance of twenty furlongs from this thereis another river called Melas. 199. From this river Melas the city ofTrachis is distant five furlongs; and here, in the parts where Trachisis situated, is even the widest portion of all this district, asregards the space from the mountains to the sea; for the plain has an